Is it possible to assign physical meaning to field theory with higher derivatives?

To overcome the difficulties with the energy indefiniteness in field theories with higher derivatives, we propose to use a mechanical analogy---the Timoshenko theory of the transverse flexural vibrations of beams or rods well known in mechanical engineering. This enables one to introduce the notion of ``mechanical'' energy in such field models that is wittingly positive definite. This approach can be applied at least to the higher derivative models which effectively describe the extended localized solutions in the usual first order field theories (vortex solutions in Higgs models and so on). Any problems with negative norm ghost states and unitarity violation do not arise here.